(Strip Number 7131, Original Publication Date, 16 January 1983)
Panel 1: We start things out with Lizzie walking around outside and chewing on the thumb of her mitten. Looks to me like someone tried weaning her a bit too soon there, eh?
Panel 2: She bangs on the door and yells for Elly to open up.
Panel 3: Upon seeing the mittens with their fingers all chewed up, Elly whines that Lizzie's done it again.
Panel 4: Since we're not dealing with anyone blessed with awareness here, Elly has to tell her blank-eyed child that she's chewed through the thumbs of her mittens again. Lizzie merely says "Oh."
Panel 5: Since we're dealing with a basket case with no sense of proportion, we find Elly looking as if Lizzie neutered Farley with a weed eater as she makes that ridiculous palms-out pleading gesture that I associate with Captain Kirk getting tagged by a Klingon. Watching her bleat about how now they're ruined because they're all stretched out while doing that makes Elly look like a damned lunatic and her fans. who will no doubt chant about cameras in houses look like dolts. In that spirit, it's obvious that Lizzie's "I know" is probably supposed to be a further twist of the knife.
Panel 6: We next come to Elly telling her that she's got to learn to look after her clothes and a shamed Lizzie stammering out an uh-huh.
Panel 7: As she puts on new mittens, Elly asks her if she wants them to look nice. Lizzie again says "Uh-huh."
Panel 8: As Elly ushers her out the door, she tells Lizzie that she has a new pair on and to keep them that way. Lizzie again says uh-huh.
Panel 9: She turns around to see if Elly can no longer see her.
Panel 10: She then, as expected, goes right back to chewing on the thumb of her mitten in order to torment Elly and ruin her life and not to scratch some psychological itch. To think the latter is to risk having Elly or Lynn try to see that people aren't trying to DESTROY her and thus make her defiance and rage look needless and idiotic.
Summary: Most of us would regard this as being yet another example of a small child doing something mildly irritating without really meaning much, if any, harm because it's a comfort behavior. Lynn and Elly, of course, regard this as children deliberately setting out to stab their poor, ill-used mothers in the heart because they hate them and long to see them suffer. The reason why is not because it's a replacement for the attention she thinks she's being blackmailed into providing but because children are evil monsters who love CHAOS!!!!!!